2004

December 2004

Dear ___________,

It is hard to believe that it is time to send out Christmas Greetings again. We have already received a few from the early birds who are so organized. We have had our annual Norse Club Smorgasbord with the lutefisk and lefsa; and a reception for the faculty and staff emeriti of the College of Dentistry; we have seen the Joffrey Ballet Nutcracker performance; and still to come is the department faculty Christmas brunch at the home of the Chair of the Department.

With children living on both coasts, we have traveled during this past year: In May we went to Maryland to visit the Boyds (Dawn, Bob, Heather and Andy) and to attend Heather’s graduation from Salisbury (MD) University. It was a busy but enjoyable time.

In June, we went to Lake Tahoe to see Mark and to attend a gala for the presentation of a musical which he, together with the Drama professor at the college, wrote. (Mark wrote the music and Dave wrote the book.) They called it Lysistrata’s War, based on an old Greek play.

And in July we joined Arik, Stacie, Kaelyn, and Amaya and Jene, John, BrandiAnne and J.T. at a Minnesota lake for a week. We had a nice house which held all of us; it was such fun.

My mom died in August, so there were a couple of trips to Minnesota to share her last moments and to attend her funeral. If she had lived 17 more days, she would have been 95, a long life. We think of her often.

In September we again headed for Minnesota to attend my high school class reunion – let’s see how many years was that?

On a long weekend in October, we took a Iowa Public TV bus tour to Branson – the days were filled with excursions, shows, dinners – the family friendly atmosphere as well as the patriotic emphasis was enjoyable.

And in between that we squeezed in a few trips to Decorah – Vince still teases the trout or do they tease him?

With all of you, we celebrate “the good news of great joy that will be for all the people…….a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord”.

Merry Christmas!

Vince and Verla
verlawilliams@juno.com